Nathan Yong Design
Singapore
Nathan Yong graduated from Temasek Polytechnic with a diploma in Industrial Design in 1991. He began his career not as a designer, but as a buyer, as well as engaging in product development for various companies in Singapore.
For two consecutive years (in 2006 and 2007), Nathan won the prestigious Red Dot Concept Design Award. Subsequently in 2008, he received the prestigious Singapore President*s Design Award: Designer of the Year, the highest honour accorded to designers from all creative disciplines in Singapore.
His work is inspired by observation of the visual environment, and then challenges the existential questions of the objects. Instead of superfluous details, Nathan captures the poetry of products through a stripping process, lending an object qualities that are informed by restraint.
With an industrial design background, Nathan Yong Design (NYD) has crossed over from furniture and product design to interior, exhibition, space making and sculptures.
NYD has been an inspiring studio for many designers/studios in Singapore and Asia as its portfolio includes a plethora of projects and has been featured in many international magazines.
The studio explores issues around contemporary society and culture at the start of every project, always investigating a product or a project to re-evaluate its values and find new meanings.
The key process is to strip down to the basic, distil to its essence and start adding on new meanings and values that reflect the time: be it aesthetic, functionality, technology or a new material so that the object captures the zeitgeist of the time.
Photography: Courtesy Nathan Design Studio